Five brands in our catalogue sell food supplements, not medicines — Magnus, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Elbrus, Brawn Nutrition and Zion Labs. They sit under entirely different legislation from everything else here, which changes what is legal, what is verified, and what will show up on a drug test.
The five
| Brand | Lines | Price | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnus | 35 | £6–£222 | Widest range — includes creatine |
| Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals | 18 | £36–£121 | Stamina-RX and similar |
| Elbrus | 12 | £27–£65 | Yohimbine, fat-loss products |
| Brawn Nutrition | 11 | £33–£75 | Thyro-Lean and similar |
| Zion Labs | 3 | £41–£75 | T7 fat burner |
Magnus’s £6 floor is the cheapest line in our entire catalogue — a creatine product, which is exactly the kind of thing that should be cheap.
What “food supplement” actually means
Supplements are legal to buy, hold and use. They are also not assessed for content or efficacy before they go on sale. No regulator checks that the capsule matches the label. The freedom and the weakness come from the same fact.
That is the opposite of the medicines regime, where a product must demonstrate what it contains and what it does before it can be marketed at all.
On fat-burner claims
Several of these brands sell into the fat burner category, and it is worth being blunt about what the evidence supports.
Stimulant-based fat burners work by a small, real mechanism — modestly raised metabolic rate and suppressed appetite, largely from caffeine and relatives like yohimbine. The effect exists and it is small. It is dwarfed by the calorie deficit doing the actual work.
Thyroid-adjacent products are a different matter. Anything promising thyroid-level metabolic effects either does not deliver them, or contains something that does — and if it is the latter, that is a medicine, not a supplement. Both possibilities are reasons for caution.
If you want something with genuine evidence behind it, creatine is the best-supported supplement in sports nutrition by a wide margin. See what creatine actually does.
If you are drug tested
This is the real risk with this category, and it is not hypothetical. Supplements are a documented route to inadvertent anti-doping violations through contamination — shared production lines, ingredient sourcing, cross-contact.
Under strict liability the positive is yours regardless of intent. Use only products with batch-level third-party certification and verify the batch number, not the brand. We do not hold certification data for these lines; if certification matters to you, treat that absence as your answer.
Frequently asked questions
Are these products legal in the UK?
Yes — food supplements are legal to buy and hold. That says nothing about whether the contents match the label, because nobody checks before sale.
Do fat burners work?
Stimulant-based ones produce a small, real effect. It is minor next to the calorie deficit. Anything claiming dramatic results without one is overstating its case.
Why is Magnus creatine only £6?
Creatine monohydrate is cheap to produce and sold at scale. Low price is normal here and not a warning sign — unlike a suspiciously cheap injectable.